Re: Suitable capacitor dialectrics

["Garth van Sittert" <garth-at-mediasupplies.co.za> (by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>)]

PVC is extremely lossy at RF high frequencies.  A PVC dialectric will heat
up very rapidly and melt.  My PVC cap lasted about 20 seconds.  :-(.  You
will also lose a vast amount of power to dialectric losses.

Don't use PVC for a cap.  Do it once properley with polyethylene.  Make sure
you read up well on the materials you use for any parts of your coil.

Garth



----- Original Message -----
From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 16, 2000 2:00 AM
Subject: Re: Suitable capacitor dialectrics


> Original poster: "Jason Johnson" <hvjjohnson13-at-hotmail-dot-com>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tesla list <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> To: <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2000 1:20 PM
> Subject: Re: Suitable capacitor dialectrics
>
>
> > Original poster: "B Marshall" <bm-at-bens-stuff.fsnet.co.uk>
> >
> > At 12/08/00 12:00:00, you wrote:
> > >Original poster: "Garth van Sittert" <garth-at-mediasupplies.co.za>
> > >
> > >Hi All
> > >
> > >I have searched the archives and couldn't seem to locate any posts that
> list a
> > >set of suitable capacitor dialectrics that can be used in the primary
> > >capacitor.  It may be useful if anyone knows of a couple to list it.
So
> far I
> > >know of polypropylene, polyethylene.  Vinyl (PVC) is a no no.  Learned
> from
> > >experience.  Got a 42nF 10kV homemade vinyl cap though.
> >
> > Why is PVC unsuitable? I have just bought 100 PVC CD sleeves for the
> > purpose of making one. What
> > is the dielectric strength of PVC?
> >
> > Regards,
> > Ben
>
> PVC has a dielecric constant of 2.95 and a dielectric strength of 725
> volts/mil
>
> Jason Johnson
>
>
>
>